Lua templating/Converting Wikitext templates
Collected here are tips for converting Wikitext-based to Lua. Switch statements (#switch) One of the most common cases of a slow template is due to a large statement, which are often called multiple times on the same page. By making use of mw.loadData and a simple table of data, we can make these templates significantly faster. By using a simple Lua table of data, we move to using a roughly O(1) hash table lookup, and by using mw.loadData(), the data will only be loaded once in a page load no matter how many times Module:FooBar is invoked on a page. For a switch statement with 150 items, converting it to Lua in this way resulted in an approximately 50% improvement in parse time. For example, if you have a template that uses a switch statement like so: } | case 1 = Foo | case 2 = Bar | case 3 | case 4 = FooBar | #default: } }} To convert it to Lua, create two module pages. Module:FooBar: local p = {} local fooBarData = mw.loadData( 'Module:FooBar/data' ) function p.fooBar( frame ) local fooBarText = frame.args1 return fooBarDatafooBarText or fooBarText or "" end return p Module:FooBar/data: return { 1" = "Foo", 2" = "Bar", 3" = "FooBar", 4" = "FooBar", --"default" = "" } Usage: Output: Foo Conditional statements (#if) Many templates make use of "#if" parser functions resulting in a lot of nested functions, which may make the code very complex and hard to understand. This can be converted and made more efficient using . See live demo. For example, to create template that checks if a template argument contains "text", one would write something like: }|You entered text|No text}} This can be converted to: Module:If: local p = {} function p.main( frame ) local tArgs = frame:getParent() if not(tArgs.args1) then tArgs = frame end local sText = tArgs.args1 local sTrueAction = tArgs.args2 or tArgs.args"true" local sFalseAction = tArgs.args3 or tArgs.args"false" if sText nil or sText "" then sText = mw.getCurrentFrame():preprocess(sFalseAction) else sText = mw.getCurrentFrame():preprocess(sTrueAction) end return sText end return p Template:If: Usage: Outputs: This can be applied to complex "#if" based parser functions, and would be much easier to understand. Check if article exists (#ifexists) Create Module:ifexists: local p = {} function p.exists( frame ) local tArgs = frame:getParent() if not(tArgs.args1) then tArgs = frame end local sText = tArgs.args1 local sTrueAction = tArgs.args2 or tArgs.args"true" local sFalseAction = tArgs.args3 or tArgs.args"false" if sText and sText ~= "" then if mw.title.new( sText ).exists then return sTrueAction else return sFalseAction end end end return p Then simply use . : Note: This sadly still remains an expensive function. One can remove the "expensive" nature of the above function by using the hack below. However, this hack can actually be worse because it transcludes a whole page. local p = {} function p.exists(frame) local sPage = frame.args1 if sPage then local num = frame:preprocess(' ') if string.sub(num,1,3) ~="[then return frame.args[2 or frame.args"true" end end return frame.args3 or frame.args"false" end return p This method is not recommended. However, yet another approach can be used to inexpensively check if a module exists: local p = {} function p.exists(frame) local sPage = frame.args1 if sPage then local _, val = pcall(package.loaders2, sPage) if type(val) "function" or type(val) "string" then return frame.args2 or frame.args"true" end end return frame.args3 or frame.args"false" end return p Loop Statements (#for) One way to reduce the template size, and to make it load faster and more efficiently is to reduce repeated text. This can typically be achieved by using loops or using Lua. A template that repeats some text can be created using the loops extension by using: Template:Foo: } | } ♣ }} Usage: Output: a♣b♣c♣d♣ This can be converted to Module:Loop: local p = {} function p.appendloop( frame ) local tArgs = frame:getParent() if not(tArgs.args1) then tArgs = frame end local sOutputText = "" for iKey,sValue in pairs(tArgs.args) do sOutputText = sOutputText .. sValue .. "♣" end return sOutputText end return p Template:foo: Usage: Output: a♣b♣c♣d♣ Time function (#time) Time functions can be converted with the following Module:Time: local p = {} function p.getdate( frame ) local sText = frame.args1 local sTimestamp = frame.args2 local sLangCode = frame.args3 local lang = mw.language.new(sLangCode or "en") if sText then return lang:formatDate(sText, sTimestamp) end end return p Usage: This shows the date, e.g. 2013-10-04. The special characters used to get this date can be found on mediawiki.org. Text manipulation functions The table below lists some common text manipulation functions (StringFunctions) commonly used in wikis. Some of these are available in the Global Lua Modules/String. Explode (#explode) The "Explode" function can divide a piece of text and show the part needed. This is a parser function that was a subject of much argument and debate over close to a decade or more and one of the reasons for existence of Scribunto.https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T8455 This was primarily due to its useful ability to extract sections or parts of a text. Its syntax is something like: -> you Scribunto is hundreds of times more efficient, and can be written as: local text = "And if you tolerate this" local tab = mw.text.split( text, " ") print(tab3) Output: you Extracting text One can even do more complex things such as extracting arbitrary text using Lua patterns: local text = "Jameson, J. (2013). E-Leadership in higher education" local surname,initials, year = string.match( text, "(%a*)%s*,%s*(%S*)%s*(%b())") print( year, initials, surname) (2013) J. Jameson Number formatting There are a number of parser functions (see this) to format numbers such as Extension:Formatnum and Extension:Parser functions. Despite having the exact same name, they have different syntax and are largely incompatible. Output: 1,231,231 See also * Comparable Lua functions to wikitext * Lua templating/Snippets References